Video Review: Yamaha UrbanRush


Check it out yo!

Very well said Mickey. Not use to the drop bars on an E-bike. When I first saw it, I was a bit intimidated by that style of riding with motor assist. Looks like it takes a bit getting use to, however, I would be open to give it a try. 50 plus miles on a charge on the 'highest' setting sounds very impressive. I hope to see that in the future with traditional commuter E-bikes with a lot more weight shaved off as well. Please post your next test video here on EBR. I like the Yamaha concept with their new E-bikes. They look very well built and now well tuned motors for each bike is a big plus IMO. Thanks for posting!
 
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I'm curious why this isn't a Class 3 (28 mph) bike. Is the motor not powerful enough? It certainly has a big enough battery.
 
The 500 wh bat., and this hike weight of 43lbs + a rider anywhere from 165-250lb on a mostly flat road will give you a max. Of 30/ 20 miles for those weights. Add some hills and that range drops down dramatically. If they were to delimit it for 28mph max. ,at most 15miles range at speeds above 25mph.
Now For a skinny 125lb road cyclist with high cadence maybe even 120miles is possible !
 
The 500 wh bat., and this hike weight of 43lbs + a rider anywhere from 165-250lb on a mostly flat road will give you a max. Of 30/ 20 miles for those weights. Add some hills and that range drops down dramatically. If they were to delimit it for 28mph max. ,at most 15miles range at speeds above 25mph.
Now For a skinny 125lb road cyclist with high cadence maybe even 120miles is possible !
You must be making a generalization, as I have a customer who weighs around 210 lbs, getting 70 miles on his Yamaha CrossConnect, which is the same motor and battery size as on the UrbanRush. Also, its not just about weight, but really wind resistance and the average speed you ride at, when considering actual achieved range on mostly flat terrain. Also, if you are in not so good physical shape, yeah you will get lower range. ;)
 
You must be making a generalization, as I have a customer who weighs around 210 lbs, getting 70 miles on his Yamaha CrossConnect, which is the same motor and battery size as on the UrbanRush. Also, its not just about weight, but really wind resistance and the average speed you ride at, when considering actual achieved range on mostly flat terrain. Also, if you are in not so good physical shape, yeah you will get lower range. ;)
Yes absolutly avergae speeds is a huge factor. I assume when viewing/interpreting the range , that someone would ride his/hers fast or close to the 20mph limit. And most people who will buy this bikes will want to ride them fast. The case you mention is surely possible , but is the very few who will ride at a cruising speed (14-16mph).
And prob. This brands have used that model when pointing out the range distance. Well, not me, if it’s a speed pedelec , or even a 20mph one(for this ones , i can easily attain this speeds as i am an ex toad racer) you bet i’ll be pedalling fast , will be in a high assist and a 48x15 or lower gear. That’s why i bought the bike - to get myself within a 15-20mile radius at fast 25mph and UP !
And the e bike companies ommit saying that you must ride slow , casual (14-18mph) in order to get those miles...sure i can get 70miles from mine too risomg like that, but i could just ride my 15lb road bike and go 20mph for many hours w/o any need for a battery concern and other issues.
 
Very few people ride at 20 mph. And even fewer can do it for the entire range of this ebike and battery. The population of avid cyclists who are in that good of shape, is barely even considering an ebike right now. They will tell you that if you ask, and it's happened often enough at cycling clubs I've visited, to know it'll be awhile before they consider any form of assist.
 
If they try them for a ride then they will discover the “fun” factor +other benefits. Some will get it and then rarely go back to unassist. There are some of proffesional events put in place now for e mtb races and e road races . This helps to make popular the e bike concept. And those who participate ride and rode regular bikes before.
 
A problem I see with this bike is the power profile of the Yamaha motor. The power drops off precipitously at higher cadence, and serious roadies crank along at 80-90 rpm. My Garmin says I averaged 85 rpm on my ride yesterday, which is typical as I look back at my records.
 
I'd broadly agree with JayVee. I am a roadie by preference and I only recently sold off my road bikes after 2 years of not using them much after I got my ebikes. I prefer cycling at 80-90 rpm and the Syncdrive Sport (PW Yamaha motor) on my Giant performed well under those conditions. It does drop off assist quite fast after 90 - it gives very little assistance at 100+ rpms. But if you say at 90 or below, it's not an issue. For active users, the ability to fine-tune assist levels by modulating cadence is a nice feature.

A far more troublesome issue is the speed limit. I'd say most active users will want at least a 20 mph limit and will want to cruise at that limit whenever the road allows it, usually at Eco assist levels - which is about enough to make the bike feel lively, but not enough to lose physical engagement. The PW 45 spec sounds interesting to me. I do feel like the motor is quite capable of offering assistance of up to 45 kph, and many riders wouldn't mind being able to cruise at 40 kph on Eco even with a significant user-input requirement.
 
I'd broadly agree with JayVee. I am a roadie by preference and I only recently sold off my road bikes after 2 years of not using them much after I got my ebikes. I prefer cycling at 80-90 rpm and the Syncdrive Sport (PW Yamaha motor) on my Giant performed well under those conditions. It does drop off assist quite fast after 90 - it gives very little assistance at 100+ rpms. But if you say at 90 or below, it's not an issue. For active users, the ability to fine-tune assist levels by modulating cadence is a nice feature.

A far more troublesome issue is the speed limit. I'd say most active users will want at least a 20 mph limit and will want to cruise at that limit whenever the road allows it, usually at Eco assist levels - which is about enough to make the bike feel lively, but not enough to lose physical engagement. The PW 45 spec sounds interesting to me. I do feel like the motor is quite capable of offering assistance of up to 45 kph, and many riders wouldn't mind being able to cruise at 40 kph on Eco even with a significant user-input requirement.
If you look at this chart, the power drops off well before 90 rpm.
 

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I'm only reporting how my bike performs based on how I'm riding. It says there that there's a sharp drop-off between 80 and 90 rpm, and neither my experience nor the power meter on my bike is consistent with that chart.
 
It's the Giant Syncdrive Sport. I usually do between 80 and 90 RPM and I don't note a dramatic power drop-off within that range, even on the highest setting and on a tough incline. It might be specific to Giant's implementation of the motor. I can't say anything about any other implementation.
 
It's actually quite good for commuting because the motor delivers very good torque all the way down to 60 rpm so if you're just slammed at the end of the day, you could just put it into Sport and just lazily spin the pedals around while you cruise home. I've done that once or twice and it works well in this mode, provided that your commute home isn't that far away or that high.

I do note that the PW motor (or Syncdrive Sport) gets quite inefficient on hilly terrain, and I attribute that to its enthusiastic response to torque inputs. When you're cruising on the flat, it's basically almost completely off, so you get insane mileage. I think I can get over 100 km on a 500 Wh battery if the terrain is flat, I put it on Eco, and the wind isn't too ornery. On Standard on hilly terrain, it'll probably do 40.

I'm basing the estimate on cruising in flat-ish terrain around coastal roads. I've done 40 km round-trips on these roads and consumed less than 40% of the battery capacity (about 28%).
 
They're probably holding back a bit in order to please their company clients. This way, they can sell their own bike line, but also say that they're not using absolutely cutting-edge tech, so they're just picking up the back line. Their company clients are free to exploit the higher end of the market.
 
It’s odd that Yamaha let Wheeler use the intube 600Wh battery and didn’t put it on this bike... It totally would have made sense here. What better place to show off your flagship battery than on a Yamaha road e-bike?

Almost all the Wheelers have the new battery whereas Yamaha is lagging behind.

https://products.wheeler.ch/deu/e-bike/wheeler-i-vision-hybrid-pw-x.html
Those Wheeler Yamaha bikes are plain and simple beautiful bikes. That lineup would hurt Trek in the U.S., with their Bosch lineup. Trek needs to license the Yamaha in tune battery setup here. Or Yamaha needs to bring it. 600 wh!!
 
Wheeler was with BionX for a long time before “going Yamaha”. The switchover happened at a strategic time, just before BionX started having financial trouble. It was a lucky choice.

Perhaps Yamaha chose Wheeler for the intube battery exclusivity because it’s (apparently) the only external company that uses Yamaha drives exclusively. Nor Haibike or BH are getting the 600Wh battery for 2019, so those Wheeler managers did a pretty amazing job negotiating.
I remember you posting the Wheeler BionX bike with partially incorporated battery. I didn't find that bike particularly attractive. Quality bike though. Their Yamaha bikes are a whole new level. One reason I like the Brose is the big battery. 600 WH, PW-X is a nice package.
 
I'd broadly agree with JayVee. I am a roadie by preference and I only recently sold off my road bikes after 2 years of not using them much after I got my ebikes. I prefer cycling at 80-90 rpm and the Syncdrive Sport (PW Yamaha motor) on my Giant performed well under those conditions. It does drop off assist quite fast after 90 - it gives very little assistance at 100+ rpms. But if you say at 90 or below, it's not an issue. For active users, the ability to fine-tune assist levels by modulating cadence is a nice feature.

A far more troublesome issue is the speed limit. I'd say most active users will want at least a 20 mph limit and will want to cruise at that limit whenever the road allows it, usually at Eco assist levels - which is about enough to make the bike feel lively, but not enough to lose physical engagement. The PW 45 spec sounds interesting to me. I do feel like the motor is quite capable of offering assistance of up to 45 kph, and many riders wouldn't mind being able to cruise at 40 kph on Eco even with a significant user-input requirement.
Roadie here also, had my non motorized road bike sitting as artwork for anout 6months now, last time i checked the newer tech. For taod bikes they have 12speed systems. Selling it would get me perhaps 1/4 for what i had spent years ago, at least i did put 20k+miles on her for those years.
I am looking at the new Trek Domane, e bike of courSe.
Roxlimn what is in your opinion the most capable or best e road bike for now ? I see Specialized turbo S and maybe Bmc ?
 
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